STATEMENT
of the factions of the NKR National Assembly

The report on the "Functioning of democratic institutions in Azerbaijan" and its draft resolution which has been preliminarily approved by the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe are included in the agenda of the forthcoming PACE 2015 summer session.

In the draft resolution the co-rapporteurs for Azerbaijan Pedro Agramunt and Tadeusz Iwinski failed to address the obvious deterioration of the situation of human rights and democracy in Azerbaijan. Moreover, in the very first paragraph of the draft resolution they refer to the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict in a way that has nothing to do with reality and only repeats the language of the Azerbaijani state propaganda machine.

We are deeply concerned that by such formulations the PACE unambiguously encourages Azerbaijan in its efforts to disrupt the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs (Russia, USA, and France) – the only internationally mandated format to deal with the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.

Moreover, the intention to distort the very essence of the conflict and to present it one-sidedly in such a document is considered as an attempt to justify the numerous blatant violations in the field of democracy and human rights in Azerbaijan by existence of a conflict.

The 24 years experience of independent and democratic state building of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic is the best evidence that even in a situation of unesettled conflict it has been possible to promote and strengthen the human rights, fundamental freedoms and democratic values.

The representatives of parliamentary factions of the NKR National Assembly,

Acknowledging the leading role of the Council of Europe in the protection and promotion of human rights and the rule of law,

and being convinced that the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is a part of the European area, which shares common European values;

- Call upon distinguished colleagues in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to abide by the purposes and mission of the Council of Europe and refrain from adopting distorted and one-sided documents,

 - Propose to the Council of Europe and its bodies to establish direct co-operation with the Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

NKR National Assembly Factions:

"Motherland"
"Democracy"
"Dashnaktsutyun"
"Movement 88"
"Renaissance"

 Stepanakert,
June 18, 2015